arXiv

The arXiv (pronounced "archive," as if the "X" were the Greek letter Chi, or Χ) is an open access archive for electronic preprints of scientific papers in the fields of mathematics, physics, computer science, quantitative biology, and statistics that can be accessed via the internet. The arXiv was originally developed by Paul Ginsparg as a server to preserve papers in physics at the Los Alamos National Laboratory (the former name, the LANL preprint archive) in 1991. It was renamed as arXiv in 1999, and has been funded, hosted, and maintained by the Cornell University Library.

In many fields of mathematics and physics, almost all scientific papers are placed on the arXiv. As of March 2008, arXiv.org contains over 469,000 e-prints, with roughly four thousand new e-prints added every month. ArXiv provides the opportunity to present one's work for free to all scientists. Such efforts to create platforms for collaborative research and learning contribute to the democratization of knowledge.

However, while the arXive is in principle not peer-reviewed, some papers are in fact screened and removed by the administrator at Cornell University. For example, papers written by a Creationist, Robert Gentry, were removed from the site by the administrator, which resulted in a lawsuit by the author.[1] The incident raises questions of academic censorship and may reveal a bias that undermines the democratic, collaborative development of knowledge.

Contents

History

The arXiv was originally developed by Paul Ginsparg and started in 1991, as an archive for preprints in physics and later expanded to include astronomy, mathematics, computer science, nonlinear science, quantitative biology, and, most recently, statistics. It soon became clear that there was a demand for long term preservation of preprints. The term e-print was adopted to describe the articles. Ginsparg was awarded a MacArthur Fellowship in 2002, for his establishment of arXiv.

It was originally hosted at the Los Alamos National Laboratory (at xxx.lanl.gov, hence its former name, the LANL preprint archive) and is now hosted and operated by Cornell University,[2] with mirrors around the world. It changed its name and address to arXiv.org in 1999, for greater flexibility. It has been mistakenly claimed that the origin of the original hostname "xxx" was that it was one better than "www" in every way, but xxx.lanl.gov predated the World Wide Web. Also, it is sometimes claimed that some content-control software programs were preventing some users from accessing it at its previous address, xxx.lanl.gov, under the impression that the XXX in its name implied that it was a pornographic site; however, legislation such as CIPA was not passed until later, and there is no evidence that users were significantly hampered by such programs.

Its existence was one of the precipitating factors that led to the current revolution in scientific publishing, known as the open access movement, with the possibility of the eventual disappearance of traditional scientific journals. Professional mathematicians and scientists regularly upload their papers to arXiv.org for worldwide access and sometimes for reviews before they are published in peer reviewed journals.

Peer-review

Although the arXiv is not peer-reviewed, a collection of moderators for each area review the submissions and may re-categorize any that are deemed off-topic. The lists of moderators for many sections of the arXiv are publicly available[3] but moderators for the mathematics section and for most of the physics sections remain unlisted.

Additionally, an "endorsement" system was introduced in January 2004, as part of an effort to ensure content that is relevant and of interest to current research in the specified disciplines. The new system has attracted its own share of criticism for allegedly restricting inquiry. Under the system, an author must first get endorsed. Endorsement comes from either another arXiv author who is an endorser or is automatic, depending on various evolving criteria, which are not publicly spelled out. Endorsers are not asked to review the paper for errors, but to check if the paper is appropriate for the intended subject area. New authors from recognized academic institutions generally receive automatic endorsement, which in practice means that they do not need to deal with the endorsement system at all.

The lack of peer-review, while a concern to some, is not considered a hindrance to those who use the arXiv. Many authors exercise care in what they post. A majority of the e-prints are also submitted to journals for publication, but some work, including some very influential papers, remain purely as e-prints and are never published in a peer-reviewed journal. A well-known example of the latter is a potential proof of Thurston's geometrization conjecture, including the Poincaré conjecture as a particular case, uploaded by Grigori Perelman in November 2002. Perelman appears content to forgo the traditional peer-reviewed journal process, stating, "If anybody is interested in my way of solving the problem, it's all there [on the arXiv]—let them go and read about it."[4]

While the arXiv does contain some dubious e-prints, such as those claiming to refute famous theorems or proving famous conjectures such as Fermat's last theorem using only high school mathematics, they are "surprisingly rare." The arXiv generally re-classifies these works, for example, in "General mathematics," rather than deleting them.[5]

Censorship

Nineteen scientists, for example, Nobel laureate Brian Josephson, testified that none of their papers are accepted and others are forcibly re-categorized by the administrators of the arXiv either due to the controversial nature of their work, or it not being canonical to string theory, in what amounts to intellectual censorship.[6]

Robert Gentry, a Seventh-Day Adventist, submitted papers on the Big Bang written from a creationist perspective. The arXive administrator removed his papers and revoked his posting rights in 2001. Gentry filed a lawsuit in the district court of Knoxvilee, Tennessee. Gentry noted, "I'm a creationist and a believer in the Bible, but I want to know the truth. I want these papers to be tested by the scientific community."[7] This incident is similar to others that involve censorship of papers that support the intelligent design theory in life science fields. These cases raise questions about academic freedom in the areas of academia and academic publishing that are supposedly value-neutral.

Submission process and file size limitations

Papers can be submitted in several formats, including LaTeX, and PDF printed from a wordprocessor other than TeX or LaTeX, as well as DOCX from MS Office. For LaTeX, all files needed to generate the article automatically must be submitted, in particular, the LaTeX source and files for all pictures. The submission is rejected by the arXiv software if generating the final PDF file fails, if any image file is too large, or if the total size of the submission (after compression) is too large. The size limits are fairly small and often force the authors to convert images to achieve a smaller file size, for example, by converting Encapsulated Postscript files to bitmaps and manipulate the file size by reducing resolution or image quality in JPEG files. This requires a fairly high level of computer literacy. Authors can also contact arXiv if they feel a large file size is justified for a submission with many images.

Access

The standard access route is through the arXiv.org website or one of several mirrors. Several other interfaces and access routes have also been created by other un-associated organisations. These include the University of California, Davis's front, a web portal that offers additional search functions and a more self-explanatory interface for arXiv.org, and is referred to by some mathematicians as (the) Front.[8] A similar function is offered by eprintweb.org, launched in September 2006 by the Institute of Physics. Google Scholar and Windows Live Academic can also be used to search for items in arXiv.[9] Finally, researchers can select sub-fields and receive daily e-mailings or rss feeds of all submissions in them.

Credits

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